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As for your conjecture, how exactly does a President, or his administration, put "more than a little pressure" on an appointed-for-life Federal Circuit Judge?
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Purely conjecture but pressure can range from a talking to similar to the talking to that the President had with the head of the "completely independent" CBO, and that his staff had with the heads of "completely independent" ABC, CBS, and NBC to get them to give up yet another hour of profitable prime airtime to carry yet another primetime press conference. He couldn't fire them but the executive branch has the power to make their lives miserable. There is also the leverage of threatening to withhold consideration for the next SCOTUS nomination. I doubt that it happened but leverage does exist. Let's not forget FDR's ability to swing the SCOTUS 180 degrees to approve clearly unconstitutional laws of a type that they previously rejected as unconstitutional.
I think it's far more likely that either:
- The antis on the court sought to delay incorporation, and possibility head of cert at the SCOTUS level.
- The pro-freedom judges sought to restrict the sensitive places aspect of Nordyke.
- A combination of both 1 & 2.